My teacher keeps going awol and I'm so lonely studying for grade 7. Any one got some nice tips on playing staccato scales fast without blurring? My staccato sounds too much like legato when fast, I'm not sure how to correct it without slowing down.

Any ideas?

Practise it with just your left hand until you can play it well on its own. This is what helped me most, as I found that my LH literally couldn't do staccato on it's own.

If you can't play them fast, start off at a speed you can play them, then increase the speed gradually until it's what's required.

Make sure you acutally lift your hand off the keyboard, so it gives a good crisp touch and stops the notes from blurring into each other. Start slowly and then built up, remember it doesn't have to be exactly the tempo the AB says.

I would disagree with this - For good staccato, you shouldn't be raising your hand off the keyboard at all; thats wasting time, energy and making things hard for yourself. To get a crisp staccato useable at fast speeds, you should be 'flicking' the keys. This is really hard to explain in writing, but try like this:

Imagine that there is a speck of dust on the key and stroke it off with your finger. If you make that stroke fast and strong inwards so your finger curls, that is the action you are aiming for.

To do it correctly, if you have your thumb in C and you play just CDEFG (1st finger, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th) and back down again, your hand won't move at all - it will just be your fingers and your knuckles doing the work. (make sure your thumb is engaged all the time - the tip should be bent slightly inwards)

Once you are able to play it like that, you can cultivate a sharp staccato discernable from just a dull staccato or 'portamento' playing, which you can then use for fast runs, stacato scales, complex passages in Bach partitas, Rameau gavotte variations, etc, without any of the blurring that you are experiencing at the moment. (The faster you get, the less the 'flicking' will be exaggerated, but the principle of the action is still there)

One thing - if you find it difficult to do, it is probably (not definitely as I obviously haven't seen you play!) down to finger strength, which you can overcome quite effectively in a relatively short period of time using the Leitschky (sp?) Method.

[quote name='Cadence' date='Apr 16 2009, 12:01 PM' post='815997']
[quote name='piano*cello*sax*boy' post='815667' date='Apr 15 2009, 04:43 PM']



For good staccato, you shouldn't be raising your hand off the keyboard at all; thats wasting time, energy and making things hard for yourself. To get a crisp staccato useable at fast speeds, you should be 'flicking' the keys. This is really hard to explain in writing, but try like this:

Imagine that there is a speck of dust on the key and stroke it off with your finger. If you make that stroke fast and strong inwards so your finger curls, that is the action you are aiming for.

To do it correctly, if you have your thumb in C and you play just CDEFG (1st finger, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th) and back down again, your hand won't move at all - it will just be your fingers and your knuckles doing the work. (make sure your thumb is engaged all the time - the tip should be bent slightly inwards)
. (The faster you get, the less the 'flicking' will be exaggerated, but the principle of the action is still there)
[/quote]

I agree. For rapid staccato scales a fine finger staccato touch is required, but it should be remembered that staccato scales are not expected to be so fast as legato scales.

Something that helped me really feel the difference with my fingers was to alternate one octave legato, one staccato, legato, staccato. Then one hand legato, one hand staccato. You can then make this as complicated as you like - one hand, one octave then swap etc!!! Really drives home the difference and keeps the brain working! In terms of technique, the 'flicking' movement already described really helps at speed.

Initially I was lifting my hands up, to enhance the crispness but its just sooo tiring! I will try the flicking technique and see how that is. It feels nice on the computer keyboard! I don't think the blurring is as bad as what I thought it was though. I'm not sure if its an aural illusion or not - or maybe I've just improved without actually practicing

Incidentally I have a wooden floor and quite an empty room, my teacher did say that the notes ring out a lot more and I noticed I only have to touch the pedal for sustaining. In any case - I can't wait to try the flicking - I will let you know how it turns out. Grade 7 not long. am sooo freaking out and I haven't even started dominant sevenths yet

Hence my point: For good staccato, you shouldn't be raising your hand off the keyboard at all; thats wasting time, energy and making things hard for yourself.

Part of the reason that your stacatto won't be as good if you play like this is that by raising your hand from the keyboard and back again, you are forcing yourself to cover more distance in the same, if not less, amount of time. Thus you will find it virtually impossible to go really fast. (although with scales at this stage, I think you'll find that they are not an an incredibly fast speed). You're also using valuable energy and your arm and wrist are having to move up and down, which is not necessary and not helpful.

Get the 'flicking' staccato technique down pat, and you'll find it so beneficial and your arm won't tire.



Don't worry, dominant 7ths are not difficult - they are effectively just arpeggios and you will (I hope!) know the dom7 chords from your grade 5 theory, which I assume you will have taken if you are doing AB grade 7. I'm sure you'll be fine!!

Apologies - slightly off topic...Hope you don't mind me asking Cadence but what is the Leitschky method? I normally play scales very loudly to build finger strength but would be really interested to hear of another method if there is a more effective one!!!!

Cadence was, no doubt, referring to the Leschetizky method. Not easy to summarise, and I no longer advocate many of the principles myself. Too much emphasis on pure finger strength can all too easily lead to some form of strain, often with devastating consequences. Peter Feuchtwanger's ideas, based on ease of movement and relaxation, are much more in sympathy with my own.

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Thanks Helen I'll look it up on the web

There is a limit to how fast you can play a genuine staccato because of the time it takes for the dampers to have an effect. Above a certain speed the notes will blur together no matter how crisply you articulate them.

Damping is slower on an upright than on a grand, because the dampers do not act at the same place that the hammer strikes. On both types of piano they take longer to damp the base notes than those in the middle register and lower treble (and on the high treble the notes die so quickly that they don't need dampers.

I suspect that an illusion of staccato may be possible when playing fast and loud because of the rapid decay of the initial sound when the key is struck with force. Perhaps what we hear as staccato is not only the genuine gaps nbetween the notes, but also the nature of the attack. Research needed!

Yes, it is the Leschetizky method I was referring to (sorry - bad with spelling!).

I actually had never heard of this method until this year, but had unknowingly been applying it to my own playing since a young age. Whilst I agree with Helen that over emphasis and total focus on finger strength is not to be advocated due to the strain that can be caused, I believe that with advanced players and with adults (both categories of people who I believe would be sensible and follow my advice to avoid any problems!) aspects of the method can be extract and used for one's own purposes.

Peter Feuchtwanger is someone who I have heard about, as I currently am following the piano-yoga course to increase my hand span (I have very small hands and stumbled across the website of the lady who devised this method whilst I was looking for piano teachers) and I read somewhere that his ideas are related to this concept, in that they both seem to use the principles of movement, relaxation and the relationship between the mind and the body. I haven't yet completed the course, so I can't say whether my fingers will actually get stronger, but I have certainly dramatically increased my reach on the piano already.

Another aspect of the Leschetizky method that I don't think can be achieved as effectively elsewhere, or so quickly (with commitment!) is finger independance, which I value very highly.

I do still think though, that finger strength is important, because without it, we wouldn't have as much control. I always explain it to my students like this: Think about the difference between a very strong/fit person doing sit-ups and a weak/unfit person doing sit-ups. The person with strong stomach muscles could do a sit-up and then lower their upper body down as slow as they liked, controlling their movement with their muscles. The person with weak stomach muscles might be able to do a sit-up, but on the coming down, they would be hard pressed to control their descent and their upper body would probably just drop down fast as they had no control over the movement of their muscles. Its the same with the fingers - strong fingers = more control over the sound, meaning that you can consciously choose the tone and sound that you want to create.

Out of interest Helen, is it simply the over-emphasis of finger strength that means you don't agree with the principles in the Leschetizky method or are there other reasons you don't like it?

Thanks Cadence! Really appeciate your answer. I will definitely try to read more about the method and also about " the piano-yoga course". I'm always open to new suggestions and ideas and am interested to read more about it. I agree with you on this importance of finger strength...my teacher is always demonstrating how I could be playing if I was practising my scales on a regular basis !!!! But I also undertand what Helen is saying and would never do anything which I thought my hurt my hands so would be careful.
Thanks also for your staccato explanation. So far the pieces I've been playing have always been legato so I've never had to practice any staccato and it was really interesting to read how the scales should be played. My intincts would have been to lift my fingers but I had a go at it at home last night using your method and was so pleased with the results